This is a big day for LinkedIn users.
LinkedIn Stories launched today in the United States bringing a professional twist to the 24-hour stories format. As with many of its updates, the platform launches its new features on a rolling basis so you may not have the ability to post stories yet. Also please note that you can only use this feature on your mobile device.
What does this mean for brands and individuals on LinkedIn?
Stories encourage conversations and engagement on the platform while giving users a new way to share content.
Stories are the new norm on many social media platforms with users preferring to “share in the moment” rather than committing to a permanent feed post.
As for why they launched this feature, LinkedIn noted, “We’ve found there’s an entire generation growing up with Stories as a way of speaking; they’re more comfortable starting conversations with a full-screen ephemeral format than posting updates and prefer sharing content that lives as a moment in time rather than as an item in a feed.”
LinkedIn Stories enable members and organizations to share images and short videos of their everyday professional moments.
Sharing Stories is an easy way to share your experiences and insights, and to build meaningful relationships with your professional community. LinkedIn shares Stories that you post for 24 hours.
You can engage with LinkedIn Stories on your mobile app by:
- Creating a Story – An individual profile or LinkedIn Page Admin can create and post a Story using images and videos.
- Viewing a Story – LinkedIn members can view Stories created by connections and people and Pages they follow.
LinkedIn Stories display in a full-screen mode, similar to Instagram Stories and also include a messaging feature, which could make casual conversations easier on the platform.
This feature will provide a new, temporary way to share information with your network.
And although you’ll have another channel for which you need to create content, there are lots of ways to turn this into a new creative opportunity to support your business and branding goals such as by using video, spotlighting your culture and people, highlighting thought leadership by featuring callouts, quotes and stats.
LinkedIn notes that its stories option may not be for every business professional, but it is important to note that stories is how younger social media users are communicating, and leaning into that across all platforms is a smart strategy.
One other benefit of Stories – they can help colleagues and business professionals feel connected at a time when many people are still working from home and may otherwise feel disconnected from others.
LinkedIn also made cosmetic changes on its platform which include more wide spaces, more colors and less of the “LinkedIn” blue, except for “call to action” areas. The community has increased sharing of posts and articles by 50% since the COVID-19 crisis started this year.
LinkedIn added an “Open to Work” tab to help the suddenly laid-off employee find new jobs. LinkedIn says people who accept this notice receive 40% more LinkedIn mails from recruiters.
Search is being added to LinkedIn pages to find “people, events, groups and content,” and tabs are being added to LinkedIn messages to let people instantly connect to video meetings on Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Verizon’s BlueJeans.
If you would like to talk about how you can incorporate LinkedIn stories into your social media strategy at a professional services organization, contact me!